This invention relates to a marine vessel, and more particularly, to a system and method for controlling a marine vessel through a waterway.
Operation of a marine vessel through a waterway, such as moving a marine vessel from an initial location to a final location along the waterway, may involve consideration of numerous factors, which increases the difficulty and risk of the operation. For example, such factors as the presence of fixed or moving obstacles within the waterway, and/or dimensions of the waterway (e.g., width), increase the difficulty and risk of maneuvering the marine vessel within the waterway from the initial location to the final location. Additionally, others factors relating to the waterway may have limited foreseeability and yet have a significant impact on the operation of the marine vessel, such as water current, wind current, and/or other marine vessels which may suddenly obstruct a path of travel, and thus further complicate manual operation of the marine vessel from the initial location to the final location within the waterway. Also, at the final location, if the marine vessel is to be docked at a docking station, the maneuvering and/or turning of the marine vessel may involve highly complex calculations that require an operator with the highest operation skill, who may not be available, or the marine vessel may not be capable of being manually maneuvered by an operator of any skill level.
Thus, it would be advantageous to provide a system which provides an optimized path of a marine vessel through a waterway from an initial location to a final location, while taking into consideration such factors as the dimensions of the waterway, for example. Thus, the operator need not manually operate the marine vessel, based on limited information about the waterway, and instead can ensure that the marine vessel maintains a path along the optimized path provided by the system.